As we were getting periodic news in recent months about the reopening of the 104-year-old Huntington Hotel, the big question for those of us who won't be booking thousand-dollar rooms there has been when the moody restaurant and lounge known as The Big Four would be back open.
And now we have an answer: March 17. The Huntington Hotel reopened on March 1, and had an official neon sign re-lighting last week. A ribbon-cutting ceremony took place Tuesday night, with Mayor Daniel Lurie doing the honors. And the restaurant will follow in a little less than two weeks, coming back with a redesign by Ken Fulk, and all of its old, wood-paneled, noir-ish charm.
Much like the renovations at the historic Westin St. Francis and the grand rebirth of Michael Mina's Bourbon Steak last fall, this reopening marks another, indisputably positive sign for San Francisco's rebound.
The Huntington Hotel, which was purchased out of foreclosure in 2023, has been reinvented as a luxury property by Flynn Properties — whose portfolio of hotels includes the Carneros Resort & Spa in Napa, and the Solage, also in Napa. The Huntington's Nob Hill Spa is also back open, and reservations for treatments can be found here.
The building began as an apartment building in 1922, and converted into a hotel in 1924, at the height of the Roaring Twenties. It's named for one of the noted Big Four robber barons of the late 19th Century, Collis Potter Huntington, who along with Leland Stanford, Charles Crocker, and Mark Hopkins funded the Central Pacific Railroad — the western portion of the First Transcontinental Railroad that terminated in Oakland. The original Huntington Mansion stood across the street, where Huntington Park — a gift of Collis's widow Arabella to the city — now stands.
All of the Big Four had mansions here on the top of what was formerly called California Hill, and all of them burned to the ground in the 1906 post-earthquake fire. The only mansion that remains, the former James C. Flood mansion, survived the fire and now serves as the Pacific-Union Club.
When it reopens, The Big Four restaurant will be led by new Executive Chef David Intonato (Appelation Healdsburg, Gardenia in San Jose), with Matthew de Quillien serving as general manager. de Quillien previously worked at Daniel Boulud's New York properties, before moving to manage Soho House in London.
The Big Four menu will feature the signature chicken pot pie that remained on the menu for much of its 50 years, before the restaurant closed in 2020. There is also The Big Four Louie Wedge salad, which can come with either Dungeness crab or Royal Red shrimp; and a tableside preparation of steak tartare served with roasted bone marrow. There will also be steaks, naturally, and a take on cioppino, featuring Dungeness crab legs, clams, kampachi tuna, and mussels, and will reference an old Big Four menu that called it simply "San Francisco seafood stew."
Cocktails will include ice-cold martinis and Vespers, a Huntington Negroni, and local creations like the Cable Car (rum, lemon, and bitters).
The bar has been rebranded as Arabella's, and will feature its own cocktail menu.
A few more photos are below. Reservations for The Big Four (breakfast, lunch, and dinner) are now available here.
The Big Four - 1075 California Street - Opening March 17
